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  • What if Jesus was Gay?

    January 21, 2008

    Posted in: faith

    While I was scanning headlines on Yahoo News today I lunch, I was caught by surprise at a headline. “Gay Jesus play angers Australian church leaders”. I wasn’t really shocked at the headline. I think I would have been shocked had the headline read “Gay Jesus play a hit with church leaders”.

    The play, “Corpus Christi”, is being presented at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia and presents a Jesus who was gay and had gay followers. Interestingly enough, the play was directed by a person who identifies himself as a Christian and wanted to provoke debate.

    I don’t have a strong opinion on the play either way. As a long time supporter of the theatrical arts, I believe theatre, and in particular, modern drama, is a place where we can talk about topics that make us uncomfortable in a safe, nonjudgemental way. I haven’t seen or read the play yet but I’m curious to see what the play presents.

    The topic of the play alone raises so many questions in my mind that I am almost overwhelmed at the thought.

    For example:

    • What if Jesus was gay? Would you be open to the gospel had it come from the mouth of a homosexual?
    • What parts of the gospel could you accept from a Gay Jesus?
    • What parts of the gospel would you be unable to accept from a Gay Jesus?
    • How does this impact the idea of homosexuality and the Church?
    • If there was a Gay Jesus, what would the face of marriage look like today?
    • Can we as Christians talk about the impact of this play without getting caught in the shock value of its content?
    • Is the idea of a gay Jesus as upsetting to Christians today as the idea of a black Jesus would have been one hundred years ago?
    • Can we listen to the message of God without judging the vessel it came in? Or does the vessel make the message?
    • What if Mary Magdalene played the role of the Savior and Jesus played her role instead? Would we be able to believe in a female Jesus?
    • Would we be willing to buy into and believe in a Jesus that does not look like what our idea of what the Son of God should be?
    • Why has faith beome dependent on a Messiah that seems safe?
    • How did we forget how unsafe Jesus was to the Jewish population two thousand years ago?

    I think the best way to close this is with a quote from the director. I hope to open it up again with your comments and questions.

    “I wanted this play in the hands of a Christian person like myself to give it dignity but still open it up to answering questions about Christianity as a faith system,” Leigh Rowney said.

    • Recent Comments

    • Kevin said...

      1

      Dori,
      these questions are very bold. I’ve grown to know and love the gentle, but all in all masculine Jesus.
      I think these are hard and challenging questions that really stretch us when we think of a savior outside of his masculine role.
      Of course we know that there is no gender in the triune God, and that our images of God the father, the son, and holy spirit are a prior to what human/biological fatherhood and sonship are.

      But what happens when we embraces feminine images of God, God the creator, Or as Paul says in Romans, “the whole creation groaning in childbirth”

      This can make some uncomfortable, but doesn’t God preminently define motherhood, just as much as fatherhood?

      Furthermore, doesn’t the love expressed within the triune God define all earthly love, and even our sexuality including our “straigtness” or our “gayness”

      All of this really challenges the language and images we use for God. Great post!

      01/24/08 3:38 PM | Comment Link

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